The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-04-18
a DRAMATIC CENTENNIAL.
First Performance in This Country of
an American Play.

DRAMATIC CENTEN NAL.
I First Performance in This Country of
an American Play.
NEW YORK, April 1G-One hundred years
ago last night April 10, 1880 the audience
at the John Street Theatre, New York. wit
messed the first performance ever given of
an American play by a company of pro-
feSSiOnal actors What the dramatic his
tOrian, Dunlap, calls ''the pleasant and
| laugh-provokiug tragedy OF The Mercenarv
Match written by one Barndy Bidwel, .
had been played a few years previous bv
the students of Yale College under the
auspices of the Rev. Dr. Ezra Stiles, Presi-
dent of the college and there had doubtless
been other amateur performances of original
plays: but the comedy of THE Contrast"
was the first dramatic work written BY
| an American and performed in a theatre
| It's production, therefore. marks the be
| ginning of the American drama as con
nected with the American stage. ROyall
! Tyler, the author of The Contrast, was a
young man of ~, d graduate Of Harvard
and native OF Boston, where theatrical
| performances were looked upon as devices
of the devil and prohibited by law. Mr.
| Tyler was a lawyer by profession, and had
served during Shay's rebellion III Massachu-
sets on the staff Of Gen. Lincoln. When he
arrived in New York, bringing with him
ltle uHIlnlSItFI pay, WHlcn was completed
and produced few weeks afterward he
had left his native New England for the first
time and had never seen the inside of a
regular theatre The work was undertaken
and finished in three weeks. But American
plays were not then as plentiful as managers
find them century later, and MeSsrs. Hal
lam & Henry, of the John Street Theatre.
gave his manuscript their immediate atten-
ton, and probably astonished the author by
| accounting it,
The theatre which the play was
given was built for theatrical
purposes in 1861. 1t was an
ugly structure, mostly of wood and painted
red, and it stood on the north side of John
street. on the site of the building now num-
| bered Is and occupied as a seed store. The
main structure was about sixty feet from
the street, rough wooden passage way ex-
! tending from the sidewalk to the doors
During the revolution it was used by the
British officers for dramatic purposes
and Maj Andre was one of the performers
there.
The theatre was doubtless very little like
those of the present day, but that some of
the customs have survived will appear from
the following comment from the New York
Dairy advertiser of April 4, 1887: The
musicians, instead of performing between
the play and the farce, are suffered TO leave
the theatre to pay visit to the tipping
houses, and the ladies in the meantime must
anmse themselves by looking at the candles
and the empty benches"
The painful but natural inference from the
above is that the men in the audience fol
lowed the example of the musicians or the
ladies might have looked at them The or
chestra of the present day is not open to this
criticism and the candles have disappeared
bat it is questionable whether the male por-
ton of the audience has kept up with the
march Of progress.
There was but little previous announce
ment of the new comedy. 1t was in four
acts, and the scene was laid in New York
The title was given it because its lines dis
played the contrast between American hon
esty and simplicity and the affectation of
dissolute foreign ''swells." The really inter
esting character in the play was Jonathan"
Yankee. This was new creation, the
prototype of the many characters which
have been portrayed by Yankee Hill, Dan
Marble, Joseph Jefferson, Denman Thomp-
son and others. He was the shrewd yet
simrA minded countryman, and the
portraiture made a great hit. The
high reputation as a comic actor. Among
the others in the cast were Mr.. Henry, Mr..
Hallam, Mr. Morris, Mr. Harper, Mrs Nor
ris, Mrs. Kenna and Miss luke Wignell
was very successful, though his dialect was
not quite right, which was, perhaps, natural
III an lgIIsllldu. lie Was long u IaNOrlte.
Two years later, when Washington attended
the John Street Theatre, on the occasion of
Wigneu's benefit, the audience was pleased
to observe that the favorite actor was able
to excite the hearty laughter of the Presi-
dent. Mrs. Morris was the comedy lady of
the company. She was otherwise noted for
her eccentricities, one of which took the
form of an exaggerated dislike TO being seen
IN daylight, so that she had u gate made in a
neighbors garden wall that she might pass
from her lodgings in Maiden lane to the the
atre without observation.
THE Contrast was not a striking play,
but many of its hues We're bright, and, of
course, the best fall TO Jonathan He in
dulges in description of "A visit to the thea
tire, which he made by mistake. witnessing
play under the impression that tho re-
moval of the curtain had enabled him to
see into the next neighbours house When
told that he has really seen a play he ex-
claims: Mercy on my soul Did / see tho
wicked players! / vow, now | come to
think ON it, the candles seem to burn blue,
and | arm sure where / sat it smelt terribly
of birthstone
The success Of 1.-The Contrast" was doubt
less one of the influences which work to
bring about in this country decided revo-
luton of sentiment win regard TO the
drama and theatricGi amusements The in
tolerance and prejudice against which the
drama had 50 long been struggling gradu-
ally gave way, and in few years a play by
an American author ceased to be a novelty.
HENRY JAMES.